Buckle

Well, the payment is wiring it's way to Poland. Once received, my buckle will soon be crafted.

I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).

Horses... Pffpft!

Since we lack an indoor, the weather had been either too hot or too wet about a month back and I didn't have much of an opportunity for any real saddle time. So, for the past month, Phantom and I have been working on really basic stuff, neck reining and working off of leg cues at the walk.

Things were going well, so I felt it was time to work some basic trot into the routine. It was going to be a simple thing, or at least that's what I initially thought until my loving mare of 9 years attempted to dump me in the dirt not once but twice! In all the years I've ridden her, she has never attempted to throw or roll me.

The first time, we were going across ground poles. Since this was the first time in about 8 months that we worked with poles, I gave her her head so that she could actually see what she was walking over. Phantom being the "thinker" that she is, used it as an opportunity to break into a trot in the middle of the poles and then drop her head and bank hard right when we got to the last pole in an attempt to roll me into the dirt. Her attempt failed and we continued to work the edge of the ring a few times.

After I felt that she was in hand and we were working on a faster walk, I decided to move Phantom into a trot. Knowing that she has a tendency to attempt to cut into the middle, I kept a little tighter outside rein. What I didn't see or feel coming was her sudden head turn to the left. This caused a snaking action of her body and before I could react, we were loping into the middle of the ring, when I belatedly attempted the correction, she dropped her head and inside shoulder in an attempt to roll me off the side.

Fortunately I maintained my seat through both of these attempts. The only thing she managed to do at that point was raise my ire. My hands were shaking from the adrenaline rush of nearly being pitched twice and all I wanted to do was beat the tar out of her.

However, I love my horse and realized, being a rational creature, that I was partially at fault, and having never struck my horse in anger and never wanting to, I got off and asked my instructor if she might give her a spin to see what kind of bug had crawled up her butt.

Sure enough, my sweet "bay"-bee girl tried the same things with the instructor. After working with her for about 15 minutes, she had determined that the only things that I did wrong were giving her too much head and performing an improper block. She said that since my reining technique was loose, Phantom had gotten used to not carrying herself properly and was protesting to having to collect herself and actually work, so she was having a tantrum.

So, I have one more thing to work on, proper blocking. After my muscles quit hurting, I'll work in the trot without poles and see if she and I can come to some sort of accord that won't result in a donnybrook.

Embroidery Help

I know that there are a few embroiders who look at my blog. I am seeking some help with this 15th Burgundian piece.

The institution questions its attribution and thinks that it might be Swiss in origin. Somehow I sincerely doubt that the Swiss of the 1470s would create anything for Charles the Bold considering their less that amicable dealings. The arms depicted are the Valois arms of Burgundy; Philip the Good, late in his reign at the earliest and Charles at the latest.

To see a larger version of this image, go to the following URL.

http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/fmc655142b.jpg

To get to the largest image, you need to go to the www.bildindex.de/bilder/ and search the term: Stickerei

This will present a page with other examples of embroidery. Scroll down and click on the fire stryker image. Then click enlarge to get the full size image.

The questions I have specifically are, what embroidery technique(s) are employed? And what types of thread? Are they gold and silver?

The description, at least on this site is not very helpful. I may have to consult "Die Burgunderbeute" as this piece does appear in it. I'm just not up on my technical German. I will post the information from the book later today when I have access to it.

Any discussion is most welcome.

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Almost Complete

I'm very pleased. Gina wrote me yesterday to show me the completed girdle. Now I must really push the buckle maker to get going. It's truly lovely.

Current Mood: Happy :)